Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

For those who don’t know what a UAV is, it’s an acronym for Unmanned Air Vehicle.  Stuff like the predator drones have been under development by the military for years, and have only recently been recently put into service. 

One that has been recently under development is the DevilRay, which has some interesting design with its down-curled wingtips.  These propeller-driven flying wings use some sort of “inverse capped helix winglets” that somehow take advantage of the wingtip wind vortexes that form during flight, and can somehow provide stabilization. 

The wing design isn’t the only feature that makes the DevilRay unique.  Apparently, this thing is able to go up to power lines, and then latch onto it using electromagnetic induction.  Then it sucks the power off the line like a leech, and so it can stay aloft almost indefinitely. 

So, if you are in a nation hostile to another country, keep your eyes on your power lines.  You never know what type of electronic parasite might be hovering over it. 

The designers of this UAV are planning to test out the “piggybacking” feature sometime this month. 

Via [Gizmodo]